Being the sister of Harry Potter aka the boy who lived wasn't an easy thing. It came with the cost of countless sleepless nights, loads of whispering while walking down the hallways, rumors floating around the castle and always being on the run.
But...
"Wake up mate!" Harry exclaimed as he shook Ron again. "We're gonna be late for class if you don't! And it's with Snape!"
"Five more minutes." The boy muttered sleepily rubbing his eyes as he turned his back towards him.
"That's what you said last time."
"Go on without me. I'll join you guys later." He said as Harry sighed. He muttered a small fine before going. Their first class was Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was usually Harry's favourite subject. But Umbridge and Snape destroyed it.
Ron took a deep breath as he finally sat up on the bed. Their dorm room was now empty. All the boys had left for breakfast. He managed to drag himself out of the bed to the bathroom to take a long cold shower and brush his teeth.
He showed up about ten minutes late to the class.
"Mr Weasley," Snape said looking at him. "So you finally decided to show up to the class?" Ron bit the inside of his cheeks to stop himself from saying anything. "Five points from Gryffindor. Come in."
"Why were you late? You didn't even show up at breakfast." Hermione whispered to him. She was sitting in front of him beside Harry.
"I didn't want to, that's why." He said carelessly taking his books out and keeping them on the desk.
"Are you feeling sick?" She asked as he shook his head. "Then why were-"
"Can you drop it, Mione? Please."
Hermione sighed as she looked at Harry who shrugged. What was going on with him? She let it go considering the fact that Ron was never a morning person. And he acted grumpy if he doesn't get a proper good night sleep.
But that day, he just kept getting weirder. He showed up late most of the classes. He didn't show up for lunch. He lost about fifteen points the day. And it looked like he didn't care about it. Ron was never the punctual guy. But he was never this careless.
Hermione finally had enough when he didn't show up for dinner. She and Harry came to the common room to find him sitting on the sofa with a blanket over him. He was in the same position they had seen him while before they left.
"What is going on Ronald? You didn't eat anything today! You showed up late at class. You lost Gryffindor fifteen points, that's not the matter, but you look sick! That is what matters. You've been acting strange since the beginning of this semester. What hap-"
"Do you want to know what happened?!" Ron yelled standing up from the sofa he was sitting in. "Today was supposed to be mine and Hailey's one year! But now, I don't even know where she is! Do you know how it feels?! Do you know what the last thing she said to me was? Talk to me when you can finally trust me! Do you know how much it hurts when the last conversation we had was a fight where I accused her of spending too much time with boys!
She was mad at me! Why do you think I couldn't look Harry in the eyes? Because I hurt Hailey. She never forgave me for what I said. I could never apologize to her. I was an asshole. But she still saved me. She lied to Harry for me. And it..." Ron's voice cracked as his vision got blurry. "If anything bad happens to her, I could never forgive myself."
"Do you think I don't know what it's like?" Hermione asked softly as a tear rolled down her cheek. "Hailey is my best friend. She may be your sister Harry and may be your girlfriend, Ron... But she was my best friend too. The first friends who cared about me. Made me love myself. I was a know it all and people bullied me for it, but she appreciated it. We did everything together for the past five years.
Every day when I wake up, my eye goes to the bed beside me. She was supposed to be there. Every night. I just she see her there. Every day when I look at the newspaper, she's in the head line. But she wasn't supposed to be there. She was supposed to be here with us. Do you know why I try not to talk about her? That's because I'll cry... And Hailey hated seeing people cry. She would've wanted us to be strong... I'm doing it for her." She sat down on the sofa and broke down in tears.
"The party's over. Go back to your work." Harry said loudly. There were just a few people in the common room as their dinner time wasn't over yet. But those few people had listened to every word they said. And he knew, next day this topic of Hogwarts conversation.
He slowly sat down beside Hermione and wrapped a comforting arm around her.
"I'm sorry," Ron said wiping his eyes before he sat down on the other side of Hermione. "I... I didn't mean to get so angry... But it was just hard. Bottling up everything."
"I-It's alright," Hermione said looking up at him.
"I was just wondering... D-Did Hailey ever... Forgive me?" He asked hoping she did so he could at least sleep one night properly. The girl looked at him and sniffed, not being able to get the words out of her mouth. He looked at Harry who looked back at him. He too didn't say anything. Ron bit his lips before looking outside the window. The truth was-
She never did.
___________________
Remus Lupin was in his house sleeping. It was about 6 in the morning. Though the full moon was a week ago, he was still quite exhausted. Transformation never got easy. If it was possible, it got harder. He got up from the bed to make himself breakfast when a familiar-looking Patronus came in. He frowned when he recognised whose Patronus it was. Arthur Weasley's.
But why would he send him a Patronus at this time?
"Come to St Mungo's as fast as you can. Try not to get recognized. We found Hailey."
.............................
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